Nightmare
by Karlo Marx
Summary: A mutant who has been beaten, violated, and mutilated comes the Xavier Institute to recover from a breakdown at her school. Now the native daughter of fear and hatred must come to terms creulty of an us against them society.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: The power of the Media

"Bobby turn on the news," Were the words stated by a voice accented by a language that could come from numerous cultures but was usually labeled African.

"Wha-" was the Iceman's reply. The program he and a few other students were watching was so immersive that it had robbed him of his ability to put the letter T at the end of words.

"The news, put on the news," Said the voice that could belong to no other than Ms. Monroe.

"Which one?"

"Pick." Bobby did not exactly know which channel was one of the twenty-four hour news networks. He knew they were in the general vicinity of the early thirties. The channel changed to thirty-two, which was Fox News. Which was followed by assorted c'mons and heys, which were silenced by the headline that ran across the screen reading "Mutant Columbine". The mutants at the school all froze when the words reached their eyes. Their ears burned to hear more. But not yet, for as soon as the news came on it was a commercial break. The message was clear though; Mutants will kill you and your children but before you die you might want to visit a McDonalds.

The tension silenced the most expensive and powerful propaganda machine in the world, being of course American advertising. A whole five minutes of mindlessness passed before the news came back on. When it came back on there was a man talking. He was some sort of expert.

"Look you see this is the total fault of the school. The warning signs were out in the open and the school system completely failed to see them."

The man he was sitting with then said, "I disagree . . ." He was not given a chance to say anymore.

"Don't you think that when a kid sprouts fur that she might be dangerous?" The first man was becoming passionate and loud.

"I'm not saying that, it's just that there should be some responsibility taken by the parents to make sure she is safe to be out in public."

"Would you willing to accept that your child is a danger to society." The argument went on from there, turning from a discussion of a current event to a manly competition for dominance.

As the news continued a story started to unfurl. The attacker was fifteen-year-old Sarah Proctor, who attended Dorchester County high school in Salem Maryland. She went to school that day, attended a few classes then started spewing black gas at her classmates. Fortunately the gas was completely non-lethal. This made the banner of "Mutant Columbine" a little extreme for only a few were unconscious for any period of time and even less was still in the hospital. Sarah was then quickly arrested and was being detained.

Soon the mutant's yearbook picture was on the television. She was the most disfigured of her kind that most other mutants had ever seen. She was completely black. Even her clothes were dyed black by just being worn by her. Her entire face and neck were covered in black fur, which meant her whole body was probably too. Fangs were clearly visible in the picture even though she was not smiling. Her ears too were black, long broad and pointed. They looked more demonic than elfin. On her face lay a pair of glasses, which looked, out of place on such a monster. Along with the disfigurement she was not exactly a beauty to begin with.

One last piece of information was given before the TV was turned from the factual entertainment back to the fictional entertainment. She was wounded in apprehension. Storm needed to consult the professor on whether they should intervene.


	2. Chapter 2

Nightmare Chapter Two: Away from Public Eye

"Professor, you heard?" The master of elements asked in order to commence conversation.

"Of course, I thought I felt a twinge of rage and pain, now I know why," Said the old bald man. Silence followed.

It was Storm, who spoke next, "This will really wreak havoc on the mutant registration front."

"We can worry about that later. Right now I'm more concerned about the welfare of the girl."

"Yes I came to ask if we should interfere in the matter."

"Well I don't think she should spend the rest of her life in one of those mutant prison hospitals for doing something she probably doesn't even know how she did." Professor Xavier paused. "Maybe Cerebro can help us decide."

The two then moved down to the more covert part of the mansion. There, the professor followed the standard procedure of the eye scan. He entered the spherical room. The doors shut behind him not allowing Storm to enter.

This gave Ororo Monroe the chance to grasp what would happen if she did meet this Sara Proctor. Most rampage criminals commit suicide on their murder weapons. But Sara is still alive. It will be interesting to know what make one, no matter how alienated, act as she did. Will she be angry, regretful, proud, or something else?

Storm was following this train of thought when the sliding doors to the magnificent Cerebro machine opened and out came Charles. Storm noticed how shaken he looked he must have seen something terrible in there.

Ororo instinctively asked, "Professor are you alright?"

He looked at her and sighed, "Yes I'm quite alright." He took a moment to gather his thoughts. "I need to get to a telephone."

"Yes I under stand she is potentially dangerous," Charles Xavier said into the mouthpiece on the phone for what must have been the tenth time that day. He was back in the warmer upper part of the mansion, away from the cold white sterile scientific branch. He had been diligently contacting any one involved, police, politicians, multiple times he tried to contact the girl's parents but their phone was busy. It was only when he finally contacted Mr. and Mrs. Proctor that things began to pull together. Her parents would had rather seen their daughter at what he described as a "safe institution" than put on a long humiliating trial for some variation of assault. The police dropped charges and collaborated to bring her to the "safe institution". So it was agreed that she be tucked away from the public eye.


	3. Chapter 3

Nightmare Chapter Three: Transformation

Blackness, it was all around her. It must have been night or a closed container. Either way Sarah did not mind, she was used to darkness, darkness and pain. But now there was only blackness, no pain. The chemical is the syringes made sure to that. Getting a grasp on her self she went to hold her hands together, but she pulled back. Then she realized that her ring and little fingers on her left hand were missing at the knuckle. The remembrance of that pain had shaken all of her other past pains upon her. She let out a high-pitched groan, and tried to cry. But she had no tears left; Sarah had used them all up. She relaxed herself and tried to think back to what lead to the mutilation of her left hand.

In her mind Sarah was ten or eleven again. She was standing in front of the mirror in her bedroom contemplating her self. Pinkness, that's what she saw. The items around her mirror, her walls, even her skin was pink. _How many famous people _she thought _are pink_. She could think of many who were blond, but not pink. She had spent her whole life thinking that she would grow up to look like one of the Disney princesses, but it was then she realized she would more likely resemble her mother. Pink Sarah angrily went to sleep.

It was a couple years later she was back at the mirror. Something did not look right with her color. Her skin looked less pink, like it was showing less color. She fished through her hair, and was startled to find some grey hairs. Sarah decided that if that were to continue she would tell her parents.

More time had passed and she was back at the mirror now completely grey and getting darker every week. Her parents had noticed and now she was getting ready to see a doctor about her drastic color change. At the hospital the pediatrician decided she was completely fine. The discoloration had no effect on her health.

Soon Sarah had gone from discolored to a pitiful black mar in her otherwise pink paradise. Tests had shown that she was black through and through. Every part of her, every cell was the deepest black. There is no disease on earth that could do that to someone.

As if the color change was not enough her features were changing. No braces could fix her sprouting fangs. And her ears were changing, at first like the ones of the pretty elves in the _Lord of the Rings_, but that morphed to the ears on drawings of Satan. A thin layer of fur was also growing, not hair, fur like a cat's. She could even feel a little tail stump brewing. The array of doctors she had seen came to one conclusion; mutation.

Life had become as dark as she was now that her mutation was complete. Pure black, thick fur, fangs, demon ears, and now a short tail that she was trying to see in the mirror. She finally caught it; it was short and poofy like one on a deer or a goat. Sarah was alone now. Her collection of friends had abandoned her, probably for their own safety. There was no telling what she could do. Her parents too ceased taking her places. And she ceased wanting to go places. So she drifted through life doing what she could not to be seen.


	4. Chapter 4

Nightmare Chapter Four: Collateral Damage

_This is it_, Sarah thought,_ No one can do what I have done and still be allowed back into society. I am dead except for death._ These thoughts of an end to her existence did not come with morbid drudgery; to her they were seen as a means to an end. In one year it was most likely that she would be living is a glass box, locked up beside an array of dangerous mutants. She welcomed his projection as some form of homecoming. Before she had an unnatural sham of existence. Neither she nor any of her kind could ever assimilate with the real humans. She was going to her natural place, where she could do no harm.

The mixing of two different forms of humanity always brings out the most primitive tribal instants. The most violent gangsters and the most violent headhunters both feel the need to mark their affiliation. But as gangs are a menace to society, warring tribes of hunter-gatherers are a society. In the modern world there is no place for tribal instincts. Their only use is to be manipulated by those in power to keep the screaming masses at bay.

This can be seen in how humanity has reacted to the mutant phenomenon. When they first appeared the idiot box gave the public something else to fear; a new companion to the urban male and the gay agenda. Suddenly the common man was less afraid of predatory lending and poisons in his food and was kept up late at night by the idea of some freak of nature burning his suburban paradise down just by thinking about it.

Though this tactic often keeps order in a society it can have disastrous effects on the so-called enemy. This could explain the steadily increasing mutant suicide rate. But more specifically Sarah Proctor and those she harmed were collateral damage of the attempt at controlling a quickly down spiraling culture. This is why one day when school at Dorchester County High School ended; three humans did not register the only mutant at school as a living person but as a member of a rival tribe. So they did what their ancestors would have done.

Sarah was walking home again, head down looking at her feet. Her small doe like tail itched. She always hid it in a loose long skirt, which kept it out of sight but not comfortable. Her mind was elsewhere for she did not hear the footsteps behind her. Without warning she was pulled from the act of automatic dragging of feet, buy sudden incapability of movement. Some one was holding her. She tried to discover whom, but was quickly distracted by who was in front of her. It was a boy she knew from school, she did not exactly know his name but he was a classmate. He pulled his fist back and it collided with her stomach. She felt like her entire life force left with the air in her torso. There was no feeling of consciousness only agony. He hit her again. She could no longer move. Tears ran freely. A few more blows and the one behind her dropped her to the ground. She started feeling blunt kicks all around her body. Suddenly the kicks stopped and the first two made way for the smaller more timid looking boy. He hesitated then wordlessly gripped her neck, and began violently choking her. Sarah opened her eyes long enough to see the face of the one who was wringing her neck, there was shame and sorrow, where she expected cruelty. Something that sounded kind of like an urgent "Don't kill her" allowed her to breath again. Memory became darker after a few more impacts. She drifted in and out of abuse and unconsciousness until the sky was dark.

Sarah suddenly found herself lying on the ground, alone. Her entire furry body ached. Then she came to a horrible realization. Extermination was one form of making sure one population's genetics reign supreme, but another tool of evolutionary war is breeding out a rival group.


	5. Chapter 5

Nightmare Chapter Five: Sunny Morning

Still on the transport taking her a way from human society Sarah slept, young alone and afraid. She was not quite dreaming, more remembering in sleep.

She was in her bed in her house. Black against black, it had to be. Another color would show a Sarah shaped imprint, curled into a ball still trying not to be noticed. She woke within the home she shared with her parents. She had an older sister too but she was at college. The clock read 7:15; which gave Sarah another fifteen minutes to rest. She liked sleep; it was the highlight of her day. It was the only time she was not a symbol of evil. She was only a person. The light in the window that woke her predicted beautiful weather. To some the sun in the blue sky was a beacon of hope in a dreary time. To Sarah though, the exuberant sun mocked her. The crying clouds were more of a kindred spirit. When she moved as not to look upon the grinning light, her aversion to that day's forecast left her thoughts as pain shot through her entire body and her complete memory returned. First the fuzzy broken memories of fists, feet, and finally violation came to her. Then Sarah recalled the slow dragging of her bruised body the rest of the way to her house, how each step was a feat within its self. Then how no one noticed her enter and limp to her bedroom.

She cried until her alarm clock went off. Sarah felt she had no choice, so she turned the clock off and sat up. She desperately needed a Saturday; a weekend would give her two days for her body and her soul to heal. This tiny mercy was not given. It was Wednesday. Sarah did what she could to get a grip on her self. She forced her self to stop crying, took a few deep breaths and headed for the bathroom. Sarah braced her self to look in the mirror fearing what she might see. But there was no need to; her face was only somewhat puffy, her fur covered all marks. With the problem of appearance solved she needed to do something for the pain. Her black sleek hand reached behind the mirror and pulled back a bottle. A handful of painkillers had to at least make her stop walking like she was in agony. Then she went into the shower to wash the blood off her self. Not all wounds were sealed but at least they could not stain her black clothes. Because the painkillers still had not set in, she had to sit in the shower.

She lost track of time in the warm water, but when it caught back up with her, she quickly dressed, and left for the school on the support of the pills. The thought of telling her parents what happened, or even telling them that she was sick so that she may rest never occurred to Sarah.


	6. Chapter 6

Nightmare Chapter Six: The Black Light of Truth and Life

Still contained in a large moving object, Sarah continued her flashback.

Some where on the way to school the excessive dose of painkillers began to set in with full force. Sarah felt nothing. No pain body or mind. She could barely think she merely walked. The drugs turned her from a sapient person to an automaton with little grasp on thought.

Her legs brought her to school. Her hands operated her locker. Her eyes read the words her teacher wrote from the back of the class. She acted as an animal or a machine acts, without any prudence. No one noticed her curiously drowsy manor. They were taught well not to stare at those who are different. But most translate this into completely ignoring all who they would consider outsiders.

The happy pills though were no cure for pain. They were only a solid dam. Dams built this way cannot last forever and at some point nature must win out. The initial reaction to the mind-altering chemicals did not last. Less than half way through her day the effect the painkillers had on her stabilized, giving back her higher brain function. So there she was in the back of her history class drifting in and out of the founding of the Nation of Islam and the hate that hate begat, when a violent wave of memory flooded her consciousness. She felt no pity for her self as she did when she woke that morning only anger, a furious weight that could not be added to the balancing act that kept her sane.

Involuntarily Sarah rose. Everyone looked to her. She looked back to their dubious pale faces with hatred for their happiness. The disgust she felt for them made her entire body shiver, all the way through her fur, which began to glow. Sarah could feel the power of her anger manifest in the dark light. And her classmates could see it. As those closest to the door began to leave the entire room erupted in black smoke followed by intense screams. When Sarah became the only one standing, she bathed in the screams of the others. As soon as they no longer satisfied her she walked down the hall, not hunched down in shame but head held high. Noise echoed through the school; some one pulled a fire alarm. This only brought more swarms of prey to be engulfed in the clouds of Sarah's fear producing neurotoxin.

To the masses of humans squabbling and screaming the mutant was a black devil, causing pain because that is what evil does. But she was not. No, Sarah was a goddess, a goddess who does not illuminate with the conventional white light of faith but with the black light of life. Both lights elucidate the void but the darker one exposes what the other fears to see. Sarah could not be Satan. She was too powerful. For it is god who damns sinners to a painful afterlife not the devil, and that is what she was doing. Scientifically she was inducing waking nightmares, but to those who ingested her chemical she was sending them to hell.


	7. Chapter 7

Nightmare Chapter Seven: Mutilation

"Mutant at the school," The telephone lines at the emergency 911 hotlines were jammed with that desperate piece of information, usually followed by, "my little boy or my little girl is in there". This both frightened and appealed to the police grunts that went down to the high school to investigate. To save the children, the futures of the nation from the bad guy on the television is the dream of every red blooded American. As the officers loaded their guns and entered their van none ever thought that the mutant in question was one of the students.

Around that time Sarah was still at school, wandering the halls. There was still a black glow and a cloud of smoke that followed her. The initial high of rampage was wearing off. She wanted to find the ones hurt her in the terrible manor that made her into such a monster. Some where deep within her Sarah knew that her newfound boldness could not last, so she wanted to make the most out of it before the wounds spread around her body cause her to buckle in agony once more.

She never found the ones who had stopped her on her way home from school the day earlier. Instead she came face to face with men in blue, not a SWAT team in Kevlar just the regular cops in navy blue shirts. Sarah immediately covered her self in more of her fear gas. Like a horse hearing a loud noise one of the officers panicked and fired into the darkness.

The feeling of power vanished after the sound of the gunshot filled the school. The bullet impacted between the base of her left third and fourth finger, instantly blowing a large chunk out of that hand. The smoke instantly dissipated and the black light ceased to glow. Sarah the goddess was no more; she was a scared animal once again. Before Sarah could hear the deafening pop from the gun she felt the bones at the joints shatter. When hot black ooze began to seep down her arm she let out an ear splitting scream of pain rivaling the volume of the handgun's blast. The pain was the absolute worst thing she ever felt. It clogged her entire conciseness; she had no words only the intense sensation. She shouted until she was out of breath, inhaled and continued her pathetic shriek. She held her mutilated hand to her chest, which only doused her in her own blood. The yells of suffering continued until she had no voice left. Soon Sarah's world faded to the color of the liquid she lay in.

When Sarah woke she was moving. It was all white where she was. Ghosts surrounded her. Then they were not ghosts, they were medics covered in white airtight suits focusing on her hand. She felt a new kind of pressure in that area, like they were touching a part of her that she did not know she had. They were sewing shut her gunshot injury. Sarah went back to sleep. The next time she found her self in the world of the waking she was in the darkness still moving forward.

_That_, she thought, _is how I got here and why I am here._


	8. Chapter 8

Nightmare Chapter Eight: Arrival

The moving stopped. It would not be long until Sarah was put away. Light filled her container, which quickly blinded the black mutant. Even when she closed her eyes, the darkness that she grew so accustomed to turned dull red. Eventually her eyes stopped aching. She was then able to view her surroundings; she was not in a cell tied down. Instead she was in the back of a van that had black tinted windows. What bound her was merely a seat belt, designed to keep her safe not restrain her like a dangerous animal. Out side of the van were two tall women. Sarah was glad to see that they were not two fat indifferent guards. One of them beckoned her out of the van. Sarah hesitated, and then freed herself. It was difficult to walk, the medicine that dulled the pain in her left hand made her woozy. The women supported her as she limped into a building. The environment around her was green, not the grey that she assumed surrounded all prisons.

Inside Sarah decided that she was not in a detention center. The interior was warm and brown, and there were no cells or guards in sight. Somewhere in her journey she saw children. It was a school. Suddenly Sarah felt out of place. Before she knew what she was doing she came to a halt, and stood unable to choose between accepting her happy new atmosphere, or run away and turn herself in. The two pretty ladies halted as well and one of them asked, "Why did you stop?" Sarah began to move forward again, and they continued leading her. They brought her to an elevator, which took them down to a well-lit series of corridors. There she was given a room, and a place to sleep.

Before she was left to herself the woman with red hair put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Try to get some sleep. Okay?" Sarah said nothing and did as she was told. Soon she returned to her dark world.

Sarah was not alone and she could feel it. Her eyes shot open to the bright florescent lights that surrounded her. She felt surrounded by throbbing pain. As she looked up at who accompanied her, she wondered when the pain would end. Looking over her lying inside of the bed she slept in the night before was the red haired woman who escorted her through the school. Because Sarah's eyes and her eyelids were the same color the lady did not see that she was awake until the sad creature began making pitiable noises. Sarah's silent suffering was interrupted by, "Oh you're awake." The statement went unacknowledged. "You probably want something for the pain." Sarah gave that a nod, and then sat up to swallow the pills she was given. "Now I see the paramedics fixed your hand, but you're still covered bruises and cuts. Do you want to explain why?" Sarah noticed how fishy that question was. It seemed obvious to assume that there was a struggle at her school, so her answer was only a black glare. "Do you want to know where you are?" the woman said. The black furry girl turned on her side away from her interrogator. The tall woman decided to tell her anyway. "You're at a special school, a school for people who are like us. You with other mutants." One word came to mind at that assertion, _bullshit_. This woman was a super model. Sarah was a monster. The woman continued speaking. Her words came awkwardly, for her conversation was with her self and the defiant new addition to the school. "I'm Ms. Grey. I'm a teacher here." She paused, uncertain on how to fit her neural powers into conversation, so she merely proclaimed it, "I can move things with my mind, and read thoughts. Do you know what you can do?" Now Sarah felt like she was being patronized. This Grey woman only wanted to humiliate her by making her stumble through speech. "I bet you're starving. I brought you some food." Sarah did not feel hungry. Her sorrow was creeping up on her again, and black fluid began to well at her eyes once more. She still had many tears left to go.

Note: I'm sorry I couldn't update yesterday but there was a thunderstorm that took out the electricity at my house. I also fixed some of the errors in the first few chapters.


	9. Chapter 9

Nightmare Chapter Nine: Accomplishment

Sarah was awake late again. She sat up in bed, still in the dark; the only light was the red numbers on the clock that read 1:21. Sleepless nights were not rare. Nightmares woke her nearly every night. This time it was the one where she was normal and it was black hairy demon that brutally attacked her. Apparently Freud was right. All dreams are wish fulfilling, sometimes in very twisted ways. This would be Sarah's last night sleeping in the scientific part of the mansion. The bed was now completely black, dyed mostly by her sweat. The professor said that she needed more human, no mutant contact. The next day she would attend a couple classes, only with teachers she knew. Then she would be assigned a dormitory that had a spare bed. The school was going to slowly introduce her back into normal life. By no means was Sarah looking forward to this, there were too many uncertainties, but she could not foresee living underground for the rest of her life. Sarah did not know what she wanted. Many lonely hours were spent trying to answer that question, such as right then. Her mind only drew blanks until she decided that she wanted to go back to sleep.

She woke the next morning to the sound of an alarm clock. It spoke to her like an old friend she had not seen in a long time. Time to sleep had been so plentiful in the past weeks, but now that she could not have it, there was nothing that she wanted more than to go back to sleep. But the consequences of disappointing Ms. Monroe and Ms. Grey outweighed the rewards of more sleep. So she hoisted her self out of bed and polished off her morning routine. She wore new clothes that day, that night they would be black. While tucking her tail away she considered cutting a hole for it. _Later_, she thought, _when it feels right_. She grabbed her bag filled with new notebooks, and extensive directions on how to get to her two classes that day. The powers at be made Sarah find her own class rooms. They wanted her to take the initiative.

Sarah found her way easily to the elevator to the upper area of the school. When it raised her to the residential section, she suddenly felt alone with the sight of people all around her. She wanted to sprint down to her black bed and cower for the rest of her life, but she pressed on into the frontier of the upper part of the Xavier mansion. The directions she was given were meticulously made so that there was no chance of getting lost. On her way to her first class she noticed that she was the most physically altered out of all the other mutants. She searched frantically for someone who was like her, to assure her that she was not the only one of her kind. This assurance never came.

Sarah found the class she was supposed to go to easily. The room was spacious and warm. Everything about it was pleasant to anybody who had the chance to see it. It seemed vaguely old, but not antique. The entire above ground school had the quality of being lavish without being robbed of dignity by modern values. Sarah instinctively took a seat in the back, which was still close to the chalkboard. Even though she felt somewhat nervous, there was also a feeling of accomplishment. She had made progress in her own life.


	10. Chapter 10

Nightmare Chapter Ten: Native Daughter

Sarah had taken two classes that day. The first one was with Storm, a literature class. The second was a mathematics class with Ms. Grey. Both times she was pulled aside and asked how she was doing, if she is okay, et cetera. And she nodded and allowed a barley audible affirmative grunt pass her black lips.

She then finished and was sent to one of the girl's dormitories to store her possessions, which consisted of her school supplies, clothes, and a black towel that prevented her from staining the furniture. She kept her head down, still glancing around searching for one who resembles her. None of them went beyond features that could pass for colorful fashion statements. She began seeing the same ones over and over again, each time trying to assure her self that they were in the same boat as her.

She reached the door that had the same number as the one on the directions to her dormitory. "Hey, hi," was heard behind from her. Sarah paused but realized how foolish she was going to feel if she turned around. So she opened the door and moved to enter. The voice continued, "Hey Sarah, it's Sarah right?" Now she had to turn around. The voice belonged to a white boy with brown hair. He had a kind face, almost sickeningly so. He was with a girl who had a white stripe in her hair. _Skunk_, Sarah thought. They were both smiling. Being with happy people made Sarah suddenly self-conscious; She could specifically feel her glasses, tail, and missing fingers. She had to convince herself that her fingers were gone, but that only made the empty space where they were hurt. "I'm Bobby, but I'm also Iceman" he said to her, then held out his hand and created a little ice drop from nothing. Sarah looked at it like it was a grotesque dish that he wanted her to eat.

_Is this how mutants introduce themselves_, she thought. _Hello I'm Sarah. I can send people to a hell inside their minds at my will, but that doesn't make me a bad person. _He pulled back.

"This is my girlfriend Rouge." Sarah's black glare went from the boy to the girl. Silence followed. The boy searched for something comforting to say but all that came out was, "It doesn't bother us that you scared those people."

"Why should it," was Sarah's response.

"I don't know." Sarah then headed inside the room. The words, "You want to eat with us tomorrow?" followed her. She paid them little heed.

Inside she wondered, _where does he_ _get off. He looks entirely normal. His ability is both useful and constructive; the kind of mutant the liberals mean when they talk about understanding and diversity. He is kind because his reality allows him to be, while I am a monster only capable of pain. I was called dangerous until I was so alienated that I had become dangerous. I am a product of my environment. We all are. Nothing happens for a reason and no one has control over it, and because of this I will always be alone. _

**Note from Karlo Marx-If you read this please leave a review. I need some validation of my work. Thank you. **


	11. Chapter 11

Nightmare Chapter Eleven: Laura

When one sleeps, the only part of the brain that actually shuts down is the frontal lobe; the part of the brain in charge of logic. This allows the remainder of the brain that consists of more animalistic desires to dream. Dreams serve the purpose of defeating the fears that would make a person would go insane if they could not conquer, even if the victory is only an illusion. Nightmares work with dreams to identify fear within the sub-conscious. That night Sarah was within a nightmare, for there is a loophole within the system of dreams. If one's mind cannot find a solution to its anxiety then it will be stuck within the process of identification until one is found, and in today's modern world there are an unnatural amount of occurrences that could cause this to take place. The maltreatment given to Sarah by society is one of them.

So she found herself each night transported to a world created by her own wants and insecurities. A dreamscape where she is a pure white girl and all those who have harmed her, her parents, her classmates, the police, are all black monsters. That night she found herself in a pool of her own red blood dressed all in white, when the terror became too much and she was wrenched into the waking world. The thought that came with the transition was, _which is crueler?_

Awake she repeated it, _which is crueler, which is crueler?_ Sarah began to cry. Actually she heard crying that she assumed was her own. When she did not feel the all too familiar wetness on her face, she opened her eyes and searched for the sobbing. In the dark dormitory she saw a glimmer of light. Behind it was a figure convulsing with cries of anguish. Sarah felt pity for her, not like the feeling that she had for the students she gassed, which was brought on by guilt, and sometimes was replaced by a feeling of justice. But what she felt for the girl was pure sadness for the sadness of another. Without thinking that what she might be doing was imposing, Sarah went to her.

When a black mass of fur in long black robe appeared out of the shadows and into the range of the flashlight, the paler girl inhaled deeply, startled by the beast that had snuck upon her. When the beast turned out to be her roommate Sarah the unease turned to anger, "This is your fault. You're why every one hates us," the girl whispered through gritted teeth. She had a picture of herself with her family in her hand.

Sarah never thought that way before. She had never thought of mutant kind as a whole before.

The girl seemed taken aback at her own statement. "I'm sorry. I don't mean that. Mr. Summers told us all not to talk to you like that. You wont tell him will you?" Sarah shook her head no, and sat next to her roommate with the blood shot eyes so that they could speak without waking the others who slept in that room.

"Who is Mr. Summers?" Sarah whispered.

"Ms. Grey's husband. He teaches like science and stuff. I'm Laura," Laura sobbed. Sarah had always thought of Ms. Grey as some kind of deity, and deities do not marry. But Ms. Grey was only another person. Sarah looked to the still teary girl. She was kind of chubby and had a kind face.

"Why are you crying?" the mutilated girl asked.

Laura hanged her head and said, "Its nice here and all, but I want to go home. I miss my mom, and my dad, and my little brother who called me fat in front of my friends." Laura started crying again.

"W-well it's going to be summer soon. You can see them again then," said Sarah, with a ghost of comfort in her voice.

"No, I can't. They hate me now. I can never go back. I'm a freak." Laura opened her pajamas and exposed eight symmetrical slits in two columns of four on her chest. "I-I have gills," the mutant whined. Then she paused, blushed bright red, as she felt embarrassed about her outbreak. "But I shouldn't complain to you about that." Laura's hand brushed across Sarah's black fuzzy cheek. Then another hand came and it held the demon against the fish. Laura's cries came freely and Sarah did nothing but hold her closer. Laura began speaking in-between sobs, " I know they don't want me anymore but I still love them. I still miss them. I want to go home. I just want to go home and go to school with everyone else and be with my family. I don't want to be a mutant. It's not fair." She was rambling.

Sarah merely whispered "shhh," softly.

Laura looked at her when her fervor died down, "Thank you," she said from a mucus filled mouth. They huddled for a little while longer, "I had a bunny back home. She had soft fur like you." Sarah gently smiled, black teeth and all.

That night she learned that she was not so alone after all. They all had pain to bear. The only difference was that Sarah was forced to show it on the outside.


	12. Chapter 12

Nightmare Chapter Twelve: A Day Without Hypocrisy

Sarah was kneeling on the floor of her shared dorm room surrounded by black. Things were looking better for her. The nightmares were not nearly as bad. She was fully rehabilitated back into school. The professor had given her a prosthesis for her hand that moved with her left middle finger, which did wonders for her aesthetically. And in an act of self-liberation she had laid out all of her long skirts that had previously hidden her tail and was cutting a slit in the back of each one, allowing a place for her little tail. She was not exactly flaunting her physical eccentricities, but she was no longer going out of her way to hide them.

This was the life that since she first starting turning grey she had never imagined. It was a turn around in her existence that was marked by a change of dreams. She still suffered from the dreams but no longer did they conflict with reality. They ceased to make her wish to go back to that pain in order to be normal for a brief agonizing time. She began interacting with people. Sometimes she even thought of the other students around her age, including Bobby, Rouge, John, Kitty, and Pete as friends. Laura came to be a kind of little sister for Sarah; closer than a friend, some one to share lives with. Students at that school usually identified themselves by age; there were not enough of them to pick and chose. Sarah seldom spoke with them but she did enjoy not being alone for the first time in years.

Life at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters offered a life that only the stupid and lucky can have; one without hypocrisy, without contradictions, without blatant cruel intentioned lies. There she was able to form believes that did not require her to hate herself. She was no longer a monster she just like all of the other mutants at the school, a misunderstood martyr.

Sarah finished the job at hand and changed into her newly altered clothes. She reached behind her self and touched the newly freed appendage. The fur and flesh it was made out of was soft and smooth. Almost forgetting to put her clothes away, Sarah headed out to show off her freshly visible tail. She felt it rise in anticipation.

The others were huddled around the big television. On it was senator and presidential hopeful Joseph Caballero; the savoir of what he called real America. "My opponents' campaigns are all funded by old rich white men, so that their policies would look out for the interest of old white men. But America is not a country of rich old white men. They call you the minority, but they are the true minority." Sweat dripped down his brown forehead. "But that is why we have democracy, so that corrupt minorities cannot rule over real America. Poor blacks, poor whites, poor browns, woman, homosexuals, mutants, we are all brothers, because we have all been denied what this country promises." The crowd in front of him erupted and the eruption spread out from the TV into Xavier's school. Life looked extremely good for Sarah now, because Senator Caballero had a chance.

**Note: I know what you're thinking but I have not gone soft on you. This is probably as nice as it gets. And if you want a little foreshadowing, take a closer look at the senator's name, then you will see where things are going. **


	13. Chapter 13

Nightmare Chapter Thirteen: Tragedy

_How can this be happening? It was going so well,_ Sarah thought and was sure she was not the only one thinking. Almost the entire school was huddled around some television or another, all in mourning.

This travesty of freedom all started so pure. There was no revolution. There could not be. The system had learned the best way to quell rebellion was to embrace it. So everyone was given a little safe dose of revolution on their i-pods and sent on their way to live normal lives. When that was not enough they brought about change in a simple, intelligent, peaceful way. They voted, and Joseph Caballero won. It was beautiful really. People wanted change and they made it happen. It was one of American democracy's finest moments, and possibly its last.

As soon as President Caballero mentioned nationalizing certain aspects of American industry he found himself with his guts on the outside, dead along with Vice President Cassidy and Speaker of the House O'Brian. The president was in the street one day and suddenly there was a hole in his belly. He fell quietly, and lay on his back with his arms spread out strait like he was being crucified. Kennedy was in office for three whole years and he was not mourned as much as the man who would be people's president. No assassins were found. All investigations stated that this must have been the best-planned and most expensive assassination in history.

Rising from obscurity to comfort the people was the new president. He was a no body before this and only a select few are entirely certain how he came to power. His name was Nathan Wilson Whites. In office, his first act was to give himself emergency executive powers. Then the corporate interests in America were secured.

Soon the president ceased to mourn the nation's loss and both him and the media agreed that he was the savior of America. What seemed to be popular opinion was that the country was fortunate to lose Caballero as to save them from communism. But that was a lie. People were angry. The establishment fucked up, it had no idea that it would create a martyr. As a last ditch effort to distract the masses like in the good old days, President Whites declared war on dangerous mutants.

"We live in a changing world. Mutant attacks are no longer single isolated incidents. They are organizing. It's become war now. We have intelligence regarding at least one mutant training facility in the United States. We cannot disclose further information about them, lest they are watching." They were watching. An entire school of them was. Sarah had finally found comradeship, and those she cared about were just sentenced to death on television.

That night while the girls in her room were readying for sleep, Sarah saw Kitty and Rouge. They were conversing, idle talk to take theirs minds off of the threat they heard that afternoon. Sarah ran over to them and butted in, "They're going to kill us you know. They're going to kill each and every one of us."

"They can't do that and you know it," Rouge reassured.

But Sarah didn't agree. All she saw were men blowing everyone's fingers off like they had her own. "You heard him. It's a war and we're the bad guys, and people love to see the bad guys die."

"The worst they can do is shut the school down," Rouge said still trying to stay calm.

"Yeah, how can the government allow the president to send troops to a school with the intent to kill the students? Think about it," Kitty added.

"I-I don't know. But I don't feel safe." Sarah's argument seemed to wane there. Idle conversation continued. Sarah watched them talk for a little while. And suddenly felt compelled to say, "What if they didn't kill us right away. What if they beat, tortured, and raped us first?"

They both looked to Sarah with disgust. "Why would you even say that," was Rouge's reaction.

"Yeah, That's a horrible thing to say," Kitty concurred. She then sighed and put her hand on Sarah's shoulder. "Get some sleep. You'll feel better in the morning."

"Okay, you're probably right," Said Sarah, slightly alarmed by her own comment. She went to bed that night and woke up that morning. Nothing had happened. All was right, but she still felt like hardship was coming.


	14. Chapter 14

Nightmare Chapter Fourteen: Invasion

"Sarah, you have to calm down you're freaking out," Rouge harshly whispered. But Sarah did not hear her, could not hear her. She only saw her nightmare being played out. Her eyes panned across the room where she was being held. She was in one of the elaborate classrooms she had attended for the past couple years. There were others with her almost all students. The only teacher was Storm. Sarah hoped she was not the only one left.

After the months of not being believed, she was right. They came in the night in secret. Only the Wolverine had believed her. The Professor had created an emergency evacuation protocol, but he still trusted the humans. He gave them far more trust than they warranted. Now his beautiful brain was spattered on the wall of his office never to think another kind, gentle, or brilliant thought again. But how was he to know that those who planned the attack had telepathy proofed all their intensions. But his emergency plans were not in vain. Kitty and Nightcrawler had smuggled out as many as they could including Laura, until a bullet nicked Kitty's shoulder. Jean and Scott became Swiss cheese defending the school. Pete and Logan were bullet proof though. They had to be gassed and blown up. Neither of them would crack though. So then Sarah had to sit on the floor hearing all sorts of explosives go off trying to kill her friends. In the room with her were the students who could did not leave. Bobby was being welled restrained. John was taken out with the school fire extinguishers. Before they thought to do that though one of the soldiers shot him in the leg. His pathetic groans of pain were the only sound in the room.

Guarding them were the "brothers" that Caballero spoke about; the poor of the country. The only ones desperate enough to become America's finest. The people that Sarah was told every November and every May were over seas dying for her freedom. But soldiers don't die for freedom; they die for rich white humans.

Sarah couldn't handle this. She had grown to fear rowdy kids and authority because of what had happened before she came to the school. Now rowdy kids with authority were holding her at gunpoint. She shook uncontrollably on the floor. She was dressed heavily; sweat pants, tee shirt, robe, socks. Sarah had taken to sleeping like that ever since she woke in the middle of the night and envisioned what was happening at that moment except she was wearing nothing but her fur. One of the armed kids noticed Sarah's erratic behavior. He pointed his assault rifle at her and shouted, "Stop moving." He did not have a man's voice like the soldiers in the movies. He had the smooth voice of a boy.

One of the other soldiers saw what was happening in the story. "Whoa, what are you doing?"

"I heard some of the real ugly ones can do some crazy shit."

The other one looked down at Sarah and said, "Hey, what can you do?" Sarah felt like something inside her was going to explode. He touched her with the barrel of his gun and repeated the question. Sarah could not find words she just started crying.

Storm answered for her, "She can't do any thing unless she glows."

"What happens if she glows?"

"Its not lethal."

The first soldier thought it over, "If she glows shoot her."


	15. Chapter 15

Nightmare Chapter Fifteen: The Death of Sarah

As time passed the soldiers got nervous. They had no way of telling if one of their prisoners was going to instantly kill them before they knew it. Any movement from the students and their guns would fly over to their directions. The intense silence only was interrupted when one of the boys accidentally changed colors and a barrage of bullets killed him and two other students. One of the dead bodies slumped on Sarah's shoulder. No one said anything for a while after that. Somehow that seemed to calm Sarah for a time, and she looked to the invader and plainly asked, "How many little kids have you killed today." Storm tried to silence her but the conversation had already started.

The man boy knew the answer to that, and it terrified him, so he answered, "What's that?"

Sarah realized what she had brought upon herself and was only able to mutter, "W-what?"

"That thing on your ass" Sarah wished she could phase through the wall like Kitty. He leaned down, pushed away her robe, and grabbed the little black appendage that jutted out. "Is this a tail?" A pained high-pitched whine was his answer.

Storm tried to plea with him. "Stop she didn't mean it," or "please don't hurt her," was heard as if from a million miles away. He did not care though. He did not even care if one of the mutant kids killed him. He just grabbed on to his captive's little deer tail. When it tried to escape he pinned it down. Sarah felt tears flow. Around her the others were looking to her like she was in a coffin and it was her funeral. A gloved hand moved her soft furred face away from the other students and brought it to his own painted one. The soldier seemed to contemplate killing her or kissing her. Both terrified Sarah. She opened her mouth and the soldier saw the black light. He pulled away and fired his weapon. The explosions were heard but there was no impact. The bullets stopped in mid air. The people in the somber classroom stopped with them. The ceiling opened and Sarah saw an angel in a purple cape floating against the morning sky.

"Sarah wake up," Sarah heard from Rouge. It was in the afternoon. The inhabitants of the school who did not escape and who survived the night, which amazingly included Pete and Wolverine, were outside with their new savior. "Sarah please wake up, you're scaring me."

"Sarah Proctor is dead, the humans killed her and their last chance at peace," The girl once known as Sarah said. "The humans rejected me and now I reject them and all their marks on me."

"What does that mean?"

"I am Nightmare."

**Note: Well this has become more like Malcolm X than I intended. But I think I like it that way. **


	16. Chapter 16

Nightmare Chapter Sixteen: The Birth of Nightmare

The survivors were given a fair offer from their violet-garbed rescuer; join his Brotherhood or fend for themselves in a nation that has tried to exterminate them. Most created a third option. The loyal X-Men and students took the valuables hidden in the school and fled to Canada where they are more lax on mutants. The only two who went with Magneto were John who renounced his name to become Pyro and Sarah who renounced her name to become Nightmare. Pyro joined mostly for the same reason that most join organizations that promote their own supremacy; he was told that he was better than everyone else, and that's always something hard to disbelieve. With that he wanted revenge for the night he spent whining about his leg. But it got stitched up that morning while Sarah was still sleeping. There was no permanent damage done to the limb. Nightmare though was always more of an intellectual. She joined because she honestly wanted to do the right thing.

To leave, the converts traveled by helicopter. The pilot was a woman with blue scales. She bore her mutation far better than Nightmare. She was just so beautiful without it, that it made no difference. And the way she walked, with pride despite her abnormalities. Nightmare could never be like that. She was no model, she was only 4'11'', and she had put on weight since she had left home and it never bothered her. Also glasses on demon is like an obese angel.

"You see when mutants want to integrate with the humans they let their guards down and are exterminated by the military. When we attempt to pull away from them, then we are accused of hating them, and we are hunted down by the F.B.I. as terrorists," said the oddly dressed man identified only as Magneto. When Nightmare went to church when she was still Sarah, she internalized the words and forgot them six days a week. But what she was hearing, she was keeping as the tenants that she would base her life upon. Magneto continued, "When Storm warned you that I am a radical, that my methods are unsound, did you hear how insane that was? Compared to the methods of the human controlled government, mutant separation and mutant self-defense have far more peaceful outcomes than trying to live with those who kill us, rape our women, and try to wipe our very existence off of this planet." While Pyro was contemplating the American dream of having an F.B.I. file, Nightmare was having a religious experience. Magneto was no longer the man who saved her life and lives of dozens of mutants; he was god.

The helicopter landed in the middle of nowhere. They transferred to a private airplane piloted also by the blue woman. It flew west. When that landed, waiting for them was a van. Obviously the Brotherhood expected more recruits. The vehicle delved deep in to a forest of the northwest coastal states. Nightmare wasn't sure which. There was a collection of tents the inhabitants of which were Nightmare's true comrades, mutants, many of which had been drastically altered by their mutations. There was a man who was seven and a half feet tall and had black eyes and claws. There was another who had green skin. Nightmare began to think, _people do what they can. The X-Men wanted to integrate because they could integrate. These people cannot. I cannot. They will never accept my kind, and me so we must make them or die fighting. _


	17. Chapter 17

Nightmare Chapter Seventeen: In the Brotherhood

"Remember when there were elections every four years?" Nightmare's question wasn't exactly fair. It had only been three years not quite four since the last election in which Caballero became president. The problem was that even though there was an election in sight but there was no talk of it. There was nothing on the news about an election. There were no candidates. It seemed everybody just forgot to run, everyone except for most of America. To display the numbers of upset citizens, there was to be a rally in Washington D.C. To attend was the only remaining mutant rights organization left in the United States, the Brotherhood of Mutants.

This is why Nightmare was going around, rousing the other members. Magneto specifically told Nightmare to do this. To the others she was a moral standard; the matriarch of the Brotherhood. Even if Mystique was the oldest female member, she was not a mother figure to anyone, mostly because she was over six feet tall and completely naked. Nightmare looked more like the mutant's actually mothers, stout and always wearing conservative clothing. She was like their mothers until they discovered that their children were monsters and turned them to the streets. Nightmare didn't mind her role. She did not have much heart for plotting to kill people like the others always dreamed of doing. So when the duty was thrust upon her she decided that if she was going to be something she was going to be the best that she could. She learned to cook for the mass of mutants and she cooked only healthy food. She frowned upon smoking and she was notorious for slapping beers out of the hands of some of the younger members. When any one asked why she would reply, "How can we be the rulers of the Mutant nation if we are addicted to the human's poisons?"

After asking a few more of the mutants, one of them, Mercury finally began to talk back, "Yeah, like its they tell us all this stuff in school. You know like the American democracy works so good, and the talking bill turning into a law, and how fair that is. And how you can't make fun of the national anthem 'cuz all those soldiers are dying for my freedom and stuff, but as soon as they tell you that its all a lie, there's so much stuff that makes it wrong, the bills only become laws if it makes the humans rich, and the brave soldiers from the army of one commercials gunned down the X-Men, and it don't hurt nobody if you say O' say can you see that Mrs. Owens's a bitch, and now the democracies thing don't work no more either 'cuz there ain't not more elections and all that." Mercury's intelligence was insulted by his own stunted vocabulary. He grew up poor white trash in Alabama. He was nothing; his accent would label him a toothless hate monger for the rest of his life. But when he found he could run as fast as he could talk he finally became something, a freedom fighter. There were many like him in the Brotherhood; those who really needed no protection from the humans, but probably would work at Burger King as a career, so they were willing to fight and die for anything better than what they had.

**Note: It's the season for finals again so I'm going to have to slow down on this for the next week so bare with me until then. **


End file.
